Raptors Roll Call - Game 4 vs Orlando
Bargnani - no real complaints about his offensive game. Nice looks, ball just didn’t drop. His defence, though, left a lot to be desired. After a great game 3, Andrea made like a penis in a freezer: curled up in a corner.
Baston - Well, at least it wasn’t Primoz.
Bosh - don’t see or hear much from those that thought he was too full of himself and not bringing it on the floor. 39pts, 15 boards and another warrior type effort. An uncharacteristic 5 fouls, but 2 of those were straight out of frustration. A true leader in every way.
Calderon - talk about a clam of a performance. After winning a lot of praise from media and fans alike in game 3, Jose felt it better to hide in a shell rather than defend his man or drive to the basket. His only shot that dropped was off a drive and the remainder of his 8 heaves made fans want to heave. 5 assists and 2 points from a guy looking for a new deal and a starting gig? Hope you enjoy Portland. I hear it’s beautiful.
Delfino - when I was growing up, I had a gerbil as a pet. One day it was up and active, having fun in its wheel. The next day, it just lay around like a fat TTC worker. Carlos is worse. 6 fouls in 20min while looking like you’d rather be in a steam bath on Church Street? Lame.
Ford - hate him all you want, but I think you’d rather have a 12pt 13ast guy on your playoff team than a shellfish. Playing with good court vision and heart, he reclaimed his crown as definitive starter. Closed out well in the first part of the game, but came up lame in the fourth.
Graham - Well, at least it wasn’t Primoz.
Humphries - Well, at least it wasn’t Primoz.
Kapono - earning his contract just in the playoffs (unlike a certain oaf-like centre), this would have been a blowout without his stellar stroke. Took a couple of good whacks to that insurance-inspiring mug of his and still came through.
Moon - look at me, ma!! I’m in da playoffs!! Wheeee!!!! I sure has made da big time!! Hey, Jamario….play like you want to be in the starting lineup, would ya? Even before your groin pull, you played like this was just any old game. Time to step up and show the league they made a mistake at passing you over….not to make it look like a mistake that we picked you up from some field down south.
Nesterovic - not a penis in a freezer…not a clam….more like a clam biting on a penis that is also being attacked by a pitbull at the same time. A major major disappointment. Now I know why the Spurs let him go…he is meaningless in important games. Hope he pays some tax in Canada since that is his only value to me. He can pay for my next check up.
Parker - first sign of life since the start of the playoffs. Too little too late? Maybe. I still contend an injection of his energy and positivity would provide a surge to the rest of the team, most importantly the bench. Let’s hope he can feed off his own good jump off and make game five a memorable one.
Mitchell - nice calls, yelling at the right guys at the right times, and had his team in it for 3 quarters. Orlando’s shots started falling and with a cast of characters that could defend an outside shot if their lives depended on it, not much you can do.
Sea of Red - more like a pond. You guys sucked. Seriously. Flatter than a board. You call that support? The media built you up and lied by saying it was the loudest ever in Game Three (which it wasn’t…it was much louder in the Philly series and the VC sucks chants alone were louder last year) and you come back like you’d had a hard night at Chuck E Cheese last night. Pathetic. If Andrea was an NBA crowd, you guys showed what it would sound like. I’ve heard more noise come from my washroom.
Driving the Bus: Chris Bosh
Under the Bus: Rasho Nesterovic
Apr 27th, 2008 at 5:03 am
nice. racist and homophopic in the same post. good job.
Apr 27th, 2008 at 8:30 am
I agree with you about the fans, the game was fairly quiet compared to what I remember from last year, and some time during the 1st quarter I thought back to your suggestion of selling my ticket due to all the trouble I had to go through to get downtown in the first place.
I think in terms of the fans, the problem with comparing a game against the Nets vs Magic, is that fans actually don’t hate the Magic. In fact personally I kind of like them, and I don’t think you’d find too many people that disagree with me. Dwight Howard is a really likeable guy. If you ask an average Raptor fan what he thinks of DH, they might say “he’s a beast” or “Superman.. he’s a monster”. But if you ask the same of Vince Carter, you might get a response like “I think that f—ing bastard cock-sucker half-shit asshole bitch deserves to die, and I’d love to personally run him over with my car, back and forth over and over and listen to him whine until he dies.”
Perhaps only hatred brings out the “loud” in Toronto Raptor fans.
Apr 27th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Nice touch with the freezer. They really are done but Chris really stepped up. Hopefully they can take one in Orlando.
If not then the changes should start pretty soon. I still say they over achieved last year and found the freezer this year
Apr 27th, 2008 at 10:28 am
As a “homophope”, I resent that.
Apr 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Not sure, e. If that were the case, why be loud in Game Three? Just because we were winning? Now THAT wouldn’t surprise me with the locals.
I do agree that the Magic are a fun team to watch and easily supportable. Hell, we can even cast a jealous eye to them in certain respects. At the end of the day, though, these are the playoffs. Win or go home. A battle between the lines. Hate anybody wearing blue.
It was just plain old disappointing, to be honest. The media did a great job of putting the fans on a pedestal and they showed up and performed like the Raptors did most of the season.
Apr 27th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
“picked you up from some field down south” - I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt on this one for now, but I think a little explanation/retraction is in order. Or not, since I guess it’s your blog… but let’s keep it Canadian!
Anyhow, with regards to the game… where was the friggin urgency?? we played like we thought we’d ride back to orlando on the strength of the game 3 performance.
With regards to Bargs, though, I can’t agree… he is killing us because he’s basically useless when he can’t put the ball in the hoop. And now, for the series, he has 28 points on 35 shots, which is a brutal 0.8 pts per shot attempt. He’s clearly a good shooter, but he hasn’t been taking good shots - they are usually rushed. Moreover, he’s taken TWO free throws, and he’s averaging a whopping 1.5 boards. These are undeniably atrocious numbers, and although I think he can be a player over the long term, he needs to take a seat next to Joey on the bench for now.
But what a terrible game from Jose… didn’t see that coming.
Apr 27th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
You are right…not like I have to defend myself, but maybe a little refresher as to where he is from….
“Moon, the 27-year-old Raptors rookie cult hero, should’ve been stamped a cautionary tale years ago, back when three minor league teams cut him, back when the agents stopped returning his telephone calls and everyone was so sure that Moon was destined to end up back on the dirt courts of Goodwater, Ala.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?prov=yhoo&slug=aw-moon120607&type=lgns
For those of you that have never been to the deep south or the midwest, a lot of courts are built into, on top of, or in fields and crops, especially in small towns. When I was down to see the world championships in Indiana a few years ago, we actually went on a road trip and saw some exhibition games played in corn fields a la “Field of Dreams” for baseball. Literally slats of wood nailed together to make a court.
He should be back there in about a year.
Apr 28th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
See? I knew you didn’t mean it the way some people might read it. And thanks for the random knowledge of “streetball” courts in the south haha
Apr 28th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
You have a point, Scott. Sometimes I think people actually click on some of the links we put up here instead of just reading the snippets.
I don’t mean that as a shot, but it’s a valid point. Not everybody has the time I do to read about the background of some people, however I thought most knew where Jamario was from and the types of places he’s played only because (in my opinion) it’s been hammered into us all year. You’d think the guy was MJ and we found him asking for change on a streetcorner.